Siguientes pasos para Venezuela
El Presidente Trump dice que EE.UU. va a dirigir Venezuela hasta que sea seguro
A Venezuelan refugee is praising the Trump administration for capturing Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in a targeted operation over the weekend, admitting he never believed he would see the longtime leader held accountable.
"It's amazing," Franklin Camargo told Fox News Digital in an interview. "Not even in my most optimistic fantasies, I thought I was going to see Maduro actually pay for everything that he’s done to the country that I was born in… He was a dictator, a narco-terrorist, someone who is willing to put you in prison if you speak out against him, which basically was almost my case because I was accused of terrorism by his regime."
The Trump administration successfully captured Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in a limited nighttime operation on Jan. 3 and transported the two to U.S. custody, where federal prosecutors have brought criminal charges against them, officials said.
Maduro has been in power since 2013, when he succeeded longtime Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez following Chávez’s death, presiding over a period marked by economic decline, political unrest and mass migration.
Nicolás Maduro is seen in handcuffs after landing at a Manhattan helipad, escorted by heavily armed federal agents as they make their way into an armored car en route to a Federal courthouse in Manhattan on January 5, 2026, in New York City. (XNY/Star Max/GC Images)
Since 2017, roughly 8 million people have fled Venezuela, making it one of the world’s largest displacement crises, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.
Camargo, who fled to the United States in 2019 due to political persecution, said family members and friends still inside Venezuela were overjoyed by the news, though celebrations remain muted due to government censorship and fear of retaliation from a regime that remains in power.
"I can tell you I’ve never seen Venezuelans this happy," Camargo said, describing reactions both inside Venezuela and among Venezuelan communities abroad.
Venezuelans in Miami, Fla., Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Madrid, Spain, donned Venezuela’s national colors and celebrated in the hours after President Donald Trump announced that Maduro and his wife had been captured.
Venezuelans living in Peru celebrate at Miguel de Cervantes Park near the Venezuelan Embassy in Lima on Jan. 3, 2026, after President Donald Trump said U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro following strikes on Venezuela. (Connie France / AFP via Getty Images)
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Camargo contrasted those celebrations with anger from Democratic lawmakers and left-wing protesters in the United States, arguing that opponents of the operation were effectively siding with criminals.
"It is okay to question your own government and its foreign policy, but do not side with terrorists," he reacted. "Maduro wasn't just a foreign agent that was causing harm to Venezuelans. Maduro sent criminals to the United States."
He pointed to the murders of Americans like Georgia college student Laken Riley and 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, at the hands of Venezuelan nationals to argue Trump's actions weren't just helping Venezuela but were also protecting Americans from a regime sending violent criminals to the United States.
"I think that Trump had an extremely successful operation and those who are against it — doesn’t make sense to me," Camargo said. "I understand that some people just have a broken moral compass and political compass, and they’re just going to go against whatever Trump says or does. But in the end, this is about defending America and its borders. He was a fugitive, he's a criminal, he committed crimes, and he had to pay for that."
PragerU personality and Venezuelan refugee Franklin Camargo celebrated the Trump administration's operation capturing Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro in an interview with Fox News Digital. (PragerU/Pedro Rances Mattey/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Camargo said the operation should be a bipartisan issue, noting that the reward for Maduro’s capture had been increased under both former President Joe Biden and Trump.
While expressing concern that Vice President Delcy Rodríguez remains in power, Camargo said Trump’s approach has been pragmatic and calculated.
"In the end, this is a tough fight. It's a tough battle for freedom, for having a good ally for the United States in Venezuela and doing business with them. But the regime has never been this weak and that's why we're hopeful," he added.
In an interview with The Atlantic on Sunday, President Trump also sternly warned Rodríguez she would pay a higher price than Maduro if she stood against U.S. intervention.
President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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Maduro has been indicted on major drug trafficking and weapons charges in the United States and appeared in a federal court in New York Monday for his arraignment, where he pleaded not guilty.
Camargo was just a year old when Chávez rose to power in Venezuela in 1999. He later witnessed the country’s collapse under socialist policies and began speaking out as a college student. That activism came at a personal cost. Camargo said he was expelled from school, branded a "terrorist," and that a cousin was imprisoned and tortured for his political beliefs.
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Facing threats to his life, Camargo fled to the United States in 2019 and now works as a political commentator for PragerU, where he frequently warns Americans about the dangers of socialism.
Fox News' Michael Dorgan contributed to this article.
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